6 Best RC Helicopters: Beginners, Outdoor, Budget, Deluxe (2024)

Flying RC helicopters is a fun hobby that thousands of people of all ages enjoy. Best of all, the best RC helicopters are relatively affordable, and some can be flown both indoors and outdoors. If you’ve always wanted to try flying an RC helicopter, this list will help you get started. 

In it, we review the six best RC helicopters, with some ideas for kids who are interested in trying it out, but also some more deluxe helicopters for those more experienced in the hobby who are seeking to upgrade. And any one of these choices will be fun for the whole family. 

Flying RC helicopters is as easy or as complex as you choose. Get your start with any one of the best RC helicopters in our ranking.

Our Top Picks

Take a spin through the RC choppers we reviewed. 

A Closer Look: Best RC Helicopters

Get under the hood with a complete report on each RC helicopter in our ranking.

Small and lightweight, the best RC helicopter in our ranking is the Syma S107H-E. Complete with one key take off and landing, this Syma RC helicopter is stable and easy to fly, charging up within about an hour for eight minutes of flying time. Other features worth mentioning on this well-reviewed RC chopper include emergency stop and ascend/descend, left/right fine tuning, and altitude hold. 

Overall, this is an awesome little helicopter, and it comes packaged with everything you need to get started. Also notable: the blades aren’t fixed. This is helpful should a collision occur, we learned, causing less damage to the helicopter and whatever it ran into. Otherwise, it’s a sharp-looking helicopter — suitable for kids, but also more experienced flyers, with two colors to choose from.

Most RC helicopters are meant to be flown indoors, but some are tough enough to fly outside as well. One such RC helicopter is the Alpha Group SkyRover Liberator. This indoor/outdoor RC helicopter is durably built, with one-touch take off and landing and a motion-sensing controller. We also like the super-cool styling and LED light.

Outdoors, the Liberator hovers well at about 3-feet off the ground using the auto takeoff and landing feature and without ever even touching the throttle. And when it’s in auto-pilot mode, the chopper senses obstacles, automatically adjusting itself to avoid a collision. 

But we learned the `copter survived getting stuck in trees, and at 10 minutes, the battery life is better than advertised.

For the best mini RC helicopter experience, we recommend the Cheerwing S107/S107G Phantom. This mini RC helicopter is powerful for its size, offering a 3-channel remote control and an upgraded gyro. Also recently upgraded is the frame for added durability, and auto-stability and precision speed. 

With flashing lights, the Phantom is particularly fun to fly at night with the lights off, and there are three color options to choose from.

Those who’ve tried this mini RC helicopter say that it hovers well, and if you add some weight to the nose it flies even faster. Landings are also precise with this tough little flyer, according to reports. 

With an infrared controller, this is an indoor-only helicopter, it’s important to note, but otherwise, this mini RC chopper flies well, survives crashes, and is easy to trim before take-off.

To get yourself an RC helicopter at the best price possible, we like the Syma S107G. This affordably priced and well-reviewed chopper has a built-in gyroscope keeping it stable, with a high-precision propeller. With flight-times anywhere from 6–8 minutes, the S107G also has an infrared controller, designed specifically for indoor flying.

What’s more, this option has more movement options than much more expensive models, which we liked to hear, and it is easy to fly. It’s crash resistant, we learned, even for beginners, and the aluminum and other metals it’s made from help keep it stable. But the charging port should be near the rear of the helicopter instead of the front, some say.

If you’ve been flying an RC helicopter for a while, why not pick one with all the bells-n- whistles? In our ranking, the best deluxe RC helicopter is the JJRC 3.5CH. Yes, that extra .5 channel does help the copter fly better. And it’s also made from new alloy materials helping it to resist crashing. Sold with two batteries, JJRC also offers a longer than average flight time at up to 12 minutes once fully charged.

Otherwise, the controls are easy to use, and the thing is easy to fly, we learned. With automatic takeoff and landing and altitude hold, most were up and flying in no time. It is an outdoor-only helicopter, but it hovers at a standstill., according to reports.

Other benefits include less of a learning curve than other comparable options and the controller isn’t too sensitive to input like others can sometimes be.

And finally, the Little Tikes Youdrive is the best for children just getting into RC helicopters. With auto-hover technology, this little guy is easy for young ones to fly. There’s motion steering controls, working LED lights and sturdy propellers in case they crash. 

Otherwise, kids and parents like the built-in auto start and shut off technology, and the remote is easy for kids to use. Other user feedback confirmed that the Youdrive remote is easy for kids to operate, keeping an entire family entertained for hours, we learned. It’s very easy to maneuver and not too loud, which is nice for parents to hear.

Our Process

For this guide on the best RC helicopters our team spent 5 hours researching the most popular options from all over the market. We then read through user reviews (both positive and negative) to discover what shoppers thought about each RC chopper. After comparing this data, we narrowed our list down to the top 6 RC helicopters on the market. You can count on this research to guide you to a mindful purchasing decision.

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